I'm both Poor and Cheap, so I was trying to find something that would let me commute to work in a manner roughly equivalent to my Bike, but still keep the frost bite and icy road rash at bay.
Enter the Kei Truck.
I wanted to buy the broken one that has been parked out back of Work, but my boss makes Ebeneezer Scrooge look like a spendthrift. He simply wouldn't sell it to me.
So... I bought this one.
'94 Dihatsu (Toyota) HiJet. 4wd, 660cc, heated, 30-40mpg depending, etc.
Was delivered today.
Interesting experience. Been a long time since I’ve driven a Right Hand Drive/left hand shift vehicle (England, 1989/1990). But, it came right back. Kind of fun.
It’s definitely Japanese. If I was any bigger I wouldn’t be able to drive it. 5'10" and too much leg but no leg adjustments. (Sorry Blaine, you have to ride in the back...
)But it seems to work well enough. 660cc engine has almost silent idle (good for hunting). Run it much over 90kmph and it gets noisy/shaky, but that was a given. Speedo/odo are only in km, so I’ve got to remember my rough conversions: 40kph = 25mph, 50kph = 31mph, 70kphm = 43mph, 90kph = 55mph… gotta keep the city cops at bay...
4wd is push-button instant on. Manual High & low range. Works great on ice.
Super basic rig. No dome lights (fortunately I have some LEDs to add) and the AM-only radio is tuned to Japanese frequency skips, so everything is .3 or so out of tune. Oh well. Figured I’d have to replace that anyway. Not important now.
Seems to heat up OK. Be interesting to see how it defrosts.
Me likey so far... (yes, it's street legal here. Only Interstates are off limits, and that is negotiable. (not that there are any near me).)
I feel a camo paint job is imminent.
